Today’s post is a little bit of this and a little bit of that. It’s been a while since I’ve done a post so I wanted to share a bit about what I’ve been through the last few months plus bring your attention to our focus for the month of March, Local Food.
Pain Management Update
As many of you would be aware, I have several chronic illnesses which mean I live in pretty much constant pain and exhaustion/fatigue. Over the last few months I’ve been doing as much as I can to reduce the impact these conditions have on my life and have been working towards a part time return to work in the near future. This has included seeing a Pain Management Clinic, and two pelvic pain specialists.
To be honest, I’m not sure I got much out of the pain clinic. It was another reinforcement that I’m doing the right things in terms of pacing, maintaining what exercise I can, and not continuing medications that aren’t doing anything to help. I was hoping, however, to get some new ideas out of it and that didn’t happen.
The pelvic pain specialists have been a little more promising with suggestions of additional/different diagnoses that have potential treatments and a strong focus on pain management for my pelvic floor. It appears my pelvic floor muscles need to learn to relax. Unlike other women, who generally need to learn how to tighten and utilise their pelvic floor, I need to learn to relax the muscles and avoid all core body exercises. I have been given a CD to help with relaxation and various stretches and tools to teach my muscles to relax.
Local Food
This month our focus is on local food and supporting our local produce growers.
Why have we chosen this focus?
Earth Hour 2015 on Saturday 28 March, is focused on supporting local farmers through choosing and purchasing local products. We’re broadening this a bit further and considering the most local of products, home grown…
In our garden we have a lime, an orange, a mulberry and a nectarine tree. We also have a couple of rosemary bushes and two garden beds in which we grow produce. I admit to not being the best gardener and this has been exacerbated with my illness as I don’t have much energy to be able to spend much time in the garden. Despite this we have successfully had some vegetables and herbs growing in our garden for the last 3 years. Usually it’s just herbs such as parsley, oregano and chives. Each year we attempt other vegetables based on what my father-in-law provides us (he grows seedlings for us) and we usually have some successes and some failures.
In the last year we’ve had success with broccolini, spring onions, tomatoes, spinach and silverbeet as well as our regular herbs. We currently have our first ever pumpkin growing (rather late in the season) so we’ll wait to see if that is a success as well. We haven’t had much success with zucchini this year.
Obviously we don’t grow enough yet to be able to avoid the shops completely, so when shopping we aim to get local whenever possible. Next time Janelle will be discussing the way in which their house receives it’s local produce delivered to their door. I looked into the same method, however I didn’t have much luck as they don’t deliver to our area so we just do our best with our local stores.
Why eat local food?
There are many benefits to eating local food.
Local food is usually a more sustainable food choice as you are eating fresh, in season produce that hasn’t had to travel far to get to you. If you grow it yourself you know exactly what has been used to grow it and know there are no chemicals being used. If you purchase from a local supplier, you are more likely to be able to find out exactly how it’s been grown as well. You are either buying direct and can ask questions, or if you are really interested you can take the time to visit or call the suppliers.
An additional benefit of buying and eating local food is that you are supporting your local economy, ensuring that people within your area are employed.
Do you eat local food? If so, how do you get it?
We encourage you to consider participating in Earth Hour this year by enjoying local produce and by switching off your lights on Saturday 28 March between 8:30 and 9:30 pm in your local time.